Do  We  Want  War 
in  the  Far  East? 

By 

Harry  Emerson  Fosdick,  D.D. 


A Sermon  Preached  at  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York 
October  9,  1921 


Stenographically  reported  by  Margaret  Renton 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/dowewantwarOOfosd 


DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


One  would  not  usually  return  from  a summer’s  travel  to 
make  of  his  experiences  the  subject  for  a sermon.  This  summer, 
however,  took  me  to  the  Far  East.  It  is  the  very  center  of  the 
world’s  most  crucial  problems  now.  What  happens  there  within 
these  next  few  years  spells  war  or  peace  for  all  the  world.  To 
be  sure,  from  such  swift  observation  as  was  within  my  privilege, 
no  one  would  dare  to  speak  with  dogmatism  about  the  Far  East, 
hut  after  such  an  opportunity  one  does  welcome  the  chance  to 
interpret  to  his  friends  some  of  the  things  which  he  has  seen.  The 
special  subject  of  our  morning’s  thought,  “Do  we  want  war  in 
the  Far  East  ?”  may  seem  to  answer  itself.  Of  course,  we  do  not 
want  war!  But,  my  friends,  there  is  no  “of  course”  about  it. 
When  a hoy  slips  into  the  rapids  he  does  not  want  to  go  over  the 
cataract,  but  the  time  for  him  to  face  the  crisis  is  at  the  point  of 
slipping.  Today  the  rapids  are  carrying  the  world  in  the  direction 
of  an  Oriental  war,  and  all  the  sentimental  good  will  of  kindly 
people  will  not  stop  it  in  the  end  unless  we  do  some  swift,  straight, 
righteous  thinking  and  acting  now. 

At  the  very  first,  let  us  make  clear  our  right  as  Christians  to 
be  acutely  interested  in  this  Far  Eastern  problem,  our  right  and 
duty  in  this  place  of  prayer  to  speak  about  it  as  though  it  were 
our  special  business.  Everybody  else  is  concerned  about  the 
problem  of  the  Far  East.  Books,  newspapers,  magazines,  presi- 
dential messages  and  congressional  records  are  full  of  it.  But  if 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  as  much  in  earnest  about  her  world- 
wide campaign  for  the  Gospel  as  she  professes  to  be,  there  will  be 
no  place  where  the  needs  and  perils  of  the  Far  East  will  be  given 
more  solicitous  and  careful  consideration  than  in  the  Christian 
pulpit.  The  Gospel  has  an  enormous  stake  in  a possible  conflict 
in  the  Far  East.  One  thinks  of  the  missionaries  there  and  of  the 
native  churches,  now  reaching  out  toward  self-control  and  self- 
support  until  that  glad  day  shall  come  when  missionaries  from 
abroad  will  be  no  longer  needed  and  native  churches  can  stand 

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DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


upon  their  own  feet.  On  one  mountaintop  this  summer  I spoke 
twice  a day  for  eight  days  to  an  average  audience  of  a thousand 
missionaries.  They  came  from  churches,  chapels,  schools,  col- 
leges and  hospitals,  often  in  isolated  districts  where  from  one 
month’s  end  to  another  they  rarely  heard  their  mother  tongue  and 
where,  amid  difficulties  that  no  one  can  fully  appreciate  until  he 
sees  them,  they  are  trying  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a new  Orient. 
Think  what  a Far  Eastern  war  would  mean  to  them  and  to  their 
work!  It  has  been  hard  enough  for  these  missionaries  to  preach 
the  unselfishness  of  Christ  during  these  years  when  so-called 
Christian  nations  were  slicing  China  into  spheres  of  influence  and 
following  their  economic  advantage  with  ruthless  disregard  of 
consequence.  It  has  been  hard  enough  for  these  missionaries  to 
exalt  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  during  these  last  years  when  all 
Christendom  was  drenched  with  blood.  But  God  pity  the  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Far  East  if  ever  they  try  to  preach  Christ  when 
nations,  whose  civilization  has  had  Christ  for  twenty  centuries, 
are  making  war  in  the  Far  East! 

The  preacher,  then,  is  no  shoemaker  off  his  last  who  in  the 
name  of  Christ  pleads  for  a Christian  conscience  in  America  about 
those  problems  that  underlie  the  President’s  call  for  a Disarma- 
ment Conference.  Some  of  the  dearest  things  the  Church  of 
Christ  has  set  her  heart  upon  and  for  which  she  has  poured  out 
sacrificial  life  and  means  are  at  stake  in  the  Far  East.  I bring 
an  appeal  from  the  missionaries  and  native  churches  of  China 
and  Japan  to  the  Christians  of  America.  “For  our  sakes,”  they 
say,  “if  for  nothing  else,  settle  these  Pacific  questions  now  by  just 
reason  and  fair  statesmanship.  Do  not  let  them  drift  into  the 
violent  cataclysm  which  else  will  be  the  inevitable  issue  and  which 
will  be  a staggering  blow  to  the  Gospel  in  the  Orient.” 

Perfectly  sure,  therefore,  that  we  are  dealing  this  morning 
with  a question  which  vitally  concerns  the  Church  of  Christ,  even 
in  her  most  individualistic  ministry,  I ask  you  for  a moment  to 
consider  with  me  the  two  elements  that  have  created  the  Far 
Eastern  situation.  The  first  element  is  the  spread  of  the  white 
race.  The  amazing  expansion  of  the  white  race  over  all  the  world, 
bringing  under  its  domination  folk  of  every  tribe  and  people  and 


DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


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tongue  and  nation,  is,  as  another  has  called  it,  “the  most  prodi- 
gious phenomenon  in  all  recorded  history.”  The  white  race  con- 
stitutes hardly  one  third  of  the  world’s  population,  but  by  occupa- 
tion or  government  they  hold  nine  tenths  of  the  habitable  area 
of  the  earth.  In  1500  A.  D.,  the  white  race  had  hardly  one  tenth 
of  their  present  land  area.  Then,  first  among  the  races  of  man- 
kind, they  fell  upon  the  secrets  of  mastering  the  latent  resources 
of  the  universe  and  putting  their  scientific  discoveries  at  the  service 
of  their  wants.  The  mariner’s  compass  made  them  free-men  of 
the  sea.  Gunpowder  made  them  masters  of  war.  And  like  bees 
they  swarmed  out  from  their  old  hives  to  suck  the  economic 
honey  of  the  earth. 

What  that  process  has  meant  has  been  evidenced  in  Africa 
within  the  lifetime  of  most  of  us  here.  In  1880  only  a small 
part  of  Africa  was  under  European  control.  Within  the  next 
ten  years  before  1890,  five  million  square  miles  in  Africa  were 
seized  by  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany  and  other  powers. 
And  before  1914,  all  of  Africa,  with  the  exception  of  Abyssinia 
and  Liberia,  was  subjugated  to  European  governments.  So  the 
white  race  has  swept  into  its  ample  net  nine  tenths  of  the  habit- 
able area  of  the  earth. 

For  our  purposes  the  significant  fact  lies  here : this  expan- 
sion of  the  white  race  has  come  at  last  to  the  shores  of  Eastern 
Asia.  Long  ago  Great  Britain  took  India.  In  1886  Britain 
invaded  Burma,  deposed  her  king  and  annexed  her  territory. 
French  Indo-China,  Java,  the  Malay  States,  the  Straits  Settle- 
ments, the  Philippines — watch  this  rising  tide  of  white  supremacy 
that  has  swept  around  Asia  until  it  now  washes  the  shores  of 
China  and  Japan! 

Of  course,  the  dominant  motive  behind  this  expansion  of  the 
white  race  has  been  economic.  Other  motives  have  been  braided 
into  this  central  strand,  but  at  the  basis  of  this  bewildering  spread 
of  the  white  peoples  has  been  the  desire  for  markets  and  for  goods. 
And  China  is  one  of  the  most  exhilarating  opportunities  for 
economic  expansion  that  ever  was  presented  to  mankind.  In 
Mokanshan  this  last  summer,  skilled  Chinese  carpenters  were 
getting  the  equivalent  of  twenty-one  American  cents  a day  and 


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DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST  ? 


thought  themselves  well  paid.  Here  are  people  who  can  work  in 
heat  that  would  suit  a salamander  and  in  cold  that  would  please 
a seal ; who  can  toil  all  day  on  a little  rice  that  would  not  make 
for  one  of  us  a decent  breakfast;  a people  with  a lack  of  nerves 
and  a capacity  for  prolonged  toil  that  make  them  the  despair  of 
all  competitors ; a people  so  poor,  in  a land  where  there  is  too  much 
population  for  the  means  of  subsistence,  that  they  will  work  for 
almost  nothing,  and  who  live  in  a country  whose  resources  have 
been  almost  untouched.  See  the  enormous  chance  for  economic 
enterprise — cheap  labor  and  vast  resources ! 

So,  in  1842,  Great  Britain,  under  the  guise  of  forcing  the 
opium  trade  upon  China,  made  a war  on  the  Chinese  Empire, 
seized  Hongkong,  opened  five  treaty  ports,  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  her  vast  sphere  of  special  influence  that  stretches  far  up  the 
Yangtse  Valley.  So  France,  in  1883,  seized  Tongking  and  Annam 
and  consolidated  her  sphere  of  special  influence  in  the  South.  So, 
in  1897  and  the  year  following,  Russia  took  the  Liaotung  Penin- 
sula, Germany  took  Shantung,  Great  Britain  took  Wei  Hai  Wei, 
and  France  took  Kuangchouwan.  That  is  to  say,  the  same  process 
of  white  expansion  that  swallowed  Africa  has  been  at  work  in 
Eastern  Asia  and  when  in  1900  the  Boxer  Rebellion  came,  it 
was  simply  a wild,  desperate  endeavor  of  a maddened  China  to 
throw  off  the  invasion  of  the  foreigner  that  seemed  to  spell  ruin. 
This  is  the  first  element  in  the  Far  Eastern  question. 

The  second  element  in  the  Far  Eastern  question  is  the  rise  of 
young  Japan.  The  most  illuminating  single  generalization  that 
I heard  in  the  Orient  and  that  explains  better  than  any  other  truth 
the  difference  between  backward  China  and  progressive  Japan 
is  this:  Western  civilization  came  into  Japan  from  the  top,  by 
way  of  the  ruling  class ; Western  civilization  has  been  coming 
into  China  through  the  bottom,  by  way  of  the  student  class.  The 
first  people  to  wake  up  in  Japan  were  the  Samurai — -the  rulers. 
They  first  understood  the  overwhelming  power  of  Western  na- 
tions. They  first  foresaw  the  certain  ruin  of  Japan  if  she  re- 
sisted innovation.  It  was  Prince  Ito  and  others  like  him  who 
came  West  from  Japan  in  1871  to  learn  the  secrets  of  our  power. 
But  in  China  it  was  not  the  Mandarins  who  first  awoke.  The 


DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


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Mandarins  never  have  awakened.  Poor  China  is  stumbling  on 
under  a ruling  class  that  is  not  awake.  In  China  the  real  life  is 
in  the  young  students,  for  the  most  part  from  humble  and  unin- 
fluential  homes.  While  China,  therefore,  with  her  new  life  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  ruling  class,  is  backward  and  weak,  Japan, 
guided  by  her  ruling  class  into  the  secrets  of  Western  power,  has 
been  moving  forward  with  incredible  celerity.  She  has  adapted 
to  her  purposes  Western  ideas  of  education  and  has  actually 
achieved  universal  education  of  elementary  grade.  Government 
reports  state  that  in  1916  of  the  children  legally  obliged  to  be  in 
school  99%  of  the  boys  and  98%  of  the  girls  were  actually  in 
attendance.  Japan  has  adopted  our  Western  militarism.  First 
she  borrowed  from  France.  Then  she  made  Germany  her  teacher, 
and  the  Japanese  army  today,  gathered  by  universal  conscription 
that  cannot  be  escaped,  is  built  on  Prussian  models  and  imbued 
with  the  Prussian  spirit.  As  her  army  is  German,  her  navy  is 
British.  She  copies  everywhere  the  best  -she  can  find,  wherever 
she  can  find  it.  Swiftly  she  has  set  herself  also  to  master  the 
secrets  of  Western  engineering  skill.  Her  development  in  rail- 
roads, machine  industry  and  commerce,  is  astounding.  There 
is  nothing  she  will  not  try.  There  is  nothing  she  does  not  think 
that  she  can  do.  And  so  proud  are  the  Japanese  of  these  new 
instruments  that  the  ignorant  among  them  suppose  that  they  were 
invented  in  Japan.  Said  a Japanese  to  a friend  of  mine  on  that 
excellent  electric  railway  from  Tokyo  to  Yokohama,  “Have  you 
any  electric  railways  in  America  ?”  To  which  my  friend  said, 
“Yes,  a few  in  the  larger  cities.”  And  all  this  advance  is  guided 
by  a paternal  government  which  started  it  in  the  first  place  and 
which  will  not  let  it  stop. 

I saw  the  Crown  Prince  come  home  from  his  trip  around 
the  world  and  arrive  in  his  capital  city  of  Tokyo.  No  longer  did 
the  people  prostrate  themselves  in  silence  upon  the  ground  as  they 
did  before  his  father.  They  stood  upon  the  streets  in  crowds  and 
threw  their  hats  in  the  air  and  cried  “Banzai !”  And  the  Crown 
Prince’s  statement  to  the  press,  the  first  such  message,  I suspect, 
a ruler  of  Japan  ever  issued,  was  a ringing  call  for  a forward 
look.  “Still  more  things  to  learn  from  the  West,”  he  said. 


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DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


Do  not  suppose,  however,  that  this  busy  copying  of  Western 
machinery  was  motived  in  the  first  place  by  any  admiration  for 
or  love  of  Western  folk.  It  was  motived  rather  by  fear  of  the 
West.  When  Prince  Ito  and  his  group  came  overseas  to  learn 
the  magic  of  the  foreigner,  they  hoped  by  that  same  magic  to  be 
rid  of  the  foreigner.  With  the  foreigner’s  machinery  they  would 
drive  the  foreigner  out.  And  while  that  original  motive  in  its 
crude  form  is  gone,  while  Japan  knows  that,  East  and  West,  we 
must  live  together  and  cannot  be  rid  of  each  other,  it  still 
lingers  on  in  new  incarnations.  Japan  fears  the  West.  Japan 
has  seen  the  white  race  swallow  up  nine  tenths  of  the  habitable 
area  of  the  globe.  Japan  sees  the  white  man  now  reaching  out 
strong  hands  for  economic  enterprise  and  control  in  Eastern  Asia. 
And  Eastern  Asia — Siberia,  Manchuria,  China — lying  at  her  very 
doors,  seems  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  very  existence  of 
Japan.  The  goal  of  all  Japanese  policy  is  not  to  let  the  white 
race  get  that  too. 

See  the  Japanese  point  of  view  in  the  words  of  a liberal 
Japanese  Christian.  “Sir,”  he  said,  and  I thought  I saw  tears 
of  emotion  in  his  eyes,  “you  white  people  have  appropriated 
pretty  nearly  the  whole  earth.  You  have  taken  the  land  about  the 
Pacific  and  in  it,  from  Australia  to  Alaska,  and  wherever  you  go 
you  shut  us  out.  In  an  area  where  we  have  four  hundred 
people  in  J apan  you  have  only  twenty-seven  in  the  United  States. 
We  must  have  primacy  in  Eastern  Asia,  not  only  for  surplus 
population,  but  for  economic  enterprise.  And  you  white  people 
do  not  want  us  to  have  it.  You  want  Eastern  Asia  too.  In  God’s 
name  and  humanity’s,  does  the  white  man  want  the  whole  earth  ?” 

The  expansion  of  the  white  race,  reaching  at  last  the  shores 
of  China  and  Japan,  is  met  by  the  rise  of  indignant,  powerful, 
forward-moving  young  Japan:  that  is  the  second  element  in  the 
Far  Eastern  situation. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  talk  of  solutions  for  a bewilderingly 
complex  problem  such  as  this!  Here  is  a situation  that  will  tax 
all  the  wisest  statesmanship  that  we  can  muster.  But,  as  a Chris- 
tian, I see  one  principle  of  action  that  is  indispensable  to  any 
solution  whatsoever:  the  Western  nations  must  recognize  in  the 


DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


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Far  Eastern  situation  a common  guilt  which  they  also  share.  Our 
Master  hated  nothing  quite  so  much  as  hypocrites  who  thanked 
God  that  they  were  not  as  other  men,  or  who  stoned  others  for 
crimes  of  which  they  themselves  were  guilty.  He  would  despise 
that  attitude  now  in  our  national  relationships.  There  is  no 
hope  of  a happy  issue  so  long  as  in  the  West  we  look  with  indig- 
nant condescension  on  Japan,  as  though  we  were  internationally 
holy  and  elect  and  she  were  the  one  great  sinner  of  us  all.  The 
military  party  in  Japan  has  done,  is  doing,  things  in  the  Far  East 
that  we  ought  to  hate  with  all  our  hearts.  But  he  that  cometh 
into  court  must  have  clean  hands.  Have  the  Western  nations 
that? 

Upon  the  contrary,  we  have  given  Japan  good  reason  to  be 
militaristic,  good  reason  to  trust  for  her  security  and  peace  to  the 
strength  of  her  war  establishment.  Let  me  put  this  for  a moment 
from  the  Japanese  point  of  view.  Every  other  nation  in  Asia 
has  felt  the  hand  of  white  supremacy.  India,  Burma,  Thibet,  the 
Malay  States,  the  Philippines,  territory  seized  along  the  coast  of 
China  and  now,  under  the  thin  disguise  of  mandates  from  the 
League  of  Nations,  great  areas,  like  Mesopotamia,  put  into  the 
hands  of  Western  powers — that  is  the  way  the  situation  in  Asia 
looks  to  the  Asiatic.  But  there  is  one  country  that  no  Western 
nation  ever  has  invaded.  There  is  one  nation  that  the  Western 
people  treat  with  due  respect — Japan.  Why  is  it  that  Japan  alone 
is  never  thought  of  as  possible  economic  prey,  that  Japan  alone  is 
not  divided  up  into  spheres  of  influence  or  shuffled  under  mandates 
to  European  states?  Japan  thinks  she  knows  why.  It  is  because 
she  was  swift  enough  in  adopting  Western  militarism  to  make  of 
herself  a nest  of  hornets  that  it  would  be  uncomfortable  to  disturb. 
Since  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  when  Japan,  with  her  army  and 
navy,  proved  that  the  Colossus  of  Europe  was  an  image  with  feet 
of  clay,  no  one  has  treated  Japan  lightly.  Wherefore  Japan 
does  love  her  army  and  navy ; she  does  give  to  her  military  rulers 
control  over  her  civil  government:  she  is  the  most  autocratically 
militaristic  state  on  earth  today.  She  thinks  she  won  her  place  in 
the  world  that  way.  She  thinks  her  present  peace  and  her  future 
security  depend  on  that.  The  West  has  taught  her  that  her  safety 


10  DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST  ? 


is  her  force.  Again  and  again  as  a representative  of  the  West  in 
the  East,  I had  to  say,  “ I hate  your  tricks,  but  I must  confess  we 
taught  them  to  you.” 

My  friends,  pious  preachments  on  humane  ideals  come  with 
ill  grace  from  Western  governments  to  Eastern  Asia ! It  was  a 
British  citizen  in  the  Orient  who  put  the  truth  with  pardonable 
and  picturesque  exaggeration : the  Western  nations  have  been 
playing  poker  in  Eastern  Asia,  but  when  Japan  wanted  to  join 
the  game,  they  said,  “Let  us  play  parchesi !” 

Will  you  have  one  example  of  the  thing  I mean?  We  have 
looked  with  agony  and  horror  upon  Japan’s  seizure  and  mistreat- 
ment of  Korea.  Consider  then  the  history  of  the  affair.  Korea, 
as  another  has  put  it,  is  like  a dagger  pointed  from  the  Asiatic 
continent  at  the  heart  of  J apan  and  the  point  is  only  one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles  away.  In  1894-5  such  was  the  chaos  in  Korea 
that  it  was  a question  whether  China  or  Japan  would  take  control. 
They  fought  a war  over  it  and  Japan  won.  And  Japan,  as 
other  nations  have  been  known  to  do,  proceeded  to  consolidate  her 
gains.  She  took  the  Liaotung  Peninsula  with  Port  Arthur.  Then 
three  Western  nations  moved.  Germany,  France  and  Russia  sent 
a note  to  Japan  to  this  general  effect:  “You  may  not  seize  the 
Liaotung  Peninsula.  Go  home  from  the  continent  of  Asia  to  your 
own  islands.”  Japan,  unable  to  resist  that  combination,  with- 
drew from  her  new  gains  with  bitterness  of  heart.  Then  the  three 
nations  who  had  forced  Japan  from  Asia  began  to  move  on  Asia. 
Germany  took  Kiaochau  in  Shantung;  France  demanded  new 
rights  in  southern  China  and  got  them;  and  the  paw  of  the  Rus- 
sian Bear  reached  out  for  the  very  peninsula  of  Lioatung  which 
she  had  refused  to  Japan — reached  further  yet  across  the  Yalu 
River  into  Korea.  Then  Japan  struck.  You  remember,  our 
sympathies  at  that  time  were  all  with  her.  She  struck  for  what 
she  thought  was  her  existence.  And  when  Russia  was  laid  low 
she  listened  to  the  Western  nations  no  more.  She  thought  that 
they  were  arrant  hypocrites.  She  took  Korea,  and  kept  her  and  she 
treated  Korea  rough! 

One  wishes  to  guard  himself  here  against  misunderstanding. 
I am  not  saying  that  just  now  there  is  no  difference  between  the 


DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


11 


attitude  of  Japan  toward  China  and  the  attitude  of  other  states. 
There  is  a very  serious  difference.  All  up  and  down  China  I 
asked  every  sort  of  person  whom  I could  buttonhole  why  it  is  that 
China  hates  Japan  supremely,  that  China  would  rather  have 
Germany  hack  in  Shantung  than  to  have  Japan  there,  that  other 
nations  with  their  spheres  of  influence  seem  positively  friendly  in 
comparison  with  J apan.  The  answer  was  practically  unanimous : 
the  military  party  of  Japan  is  so  anxious  about  primacy  in  East- 
ern Asia  that  they  deliberately  plot  for  a weak,  disintegrated 
China;  they  took  advantage  of  Western  preoccupation  in  the 
Great  War  to  make  on  China  the  twenty-one  demands — an  assault 
upon  the  sovereignty  of  a friendly  people  almost  unparalleled  in 
its  brazen  effrontery ; they  have  in  their  pay  the  worst  elements  in 
China,  like  Chang  Tso  Lin,  the  ex-bandit  ruler  of  Mukden ; and 
Japan  is  so  close  to  China  that  when  she  comes  in  at  all,  she  comes 
in  absorbingly.  Let  it  be  said  with  emphasis — the  great  fear  of 
China  is  Japan. 

That  does  not  mean,  however,  that  what  Japan  is  doing  is 
motived  by  principles  fundamentally  different  from  those  that 
have  controlled  the  white  man  in  his  absorption  of  nine  tenths  of 
the  earth’s  surface.  Again  and  again,  as  the  spectator  stands  in' 
that  bewildering  situation  in  the  East,  he  is  forced  to  say:  we 
must  all  repent  of  this  together!  West  and  East — we  have  been 
pretty  well  tarred  with  the  same  stick.  Selfishness  has  controlled 
our  international  attitudes.  China  has  been  in  the  eyes  of  all  the 
world  an  orange  to  be  squeezed.  If  the  Western  nations  now  will 
sincerely  change  their  attitude,  if  they  will  make  it  their  chief 
business  really  to  help  China,  to  give  her  sovereignty  back  to 
China,  to  give  China  a chance,  to  give  her  time,  to  be  Christian 
in  international  attitude  as  we  profess  to  be  Christian  in  faith, 
then  we  can  go  to  Japan  and  say:  “You,  too,  will  fall  in  with  this 
change  of  heart  or  you  will  fall  into  trouble.”  But  if  the  Western 
nations  do  not  repent  of  their  own  godless  gobbling  of  the  world 
for  selfish  purposes,  let  them  not  waste  time  in  pious  preachments 
about  humanity  in  Eastern  Asia.  If  the  delegates  to  the  confer- 
ence in  Washington  sincerely  will  turn  their  backs  upon  this 
barbarian  policy  of  selfishness  which  has  all  but  hurled  the  earth 


12  DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


now  into  the  abyss  of  hell,  there  may  be  some  hope.  But  if  they 
will  not  repent  together,  if  armament  plus  selfishness  are  still  to 
be  the  world’s  policy,  then  we  will  have  war  in  the  Ear  East.  And 
when  it  comes  it  will  be  a war ! Do  you  want  your  sons  to  go  out 
to  fight  with  Japans  sons  in  a battle  of  big  business  for  the 
economic  exploitation  of  Eastern  Asia? 

In  this  plea  for  a mutual  repentance,  we  have  this  hope:  we 
liberal  Christians  in  America  have  strong  allies  inside  Japan. 
For  Japan  is  not  a unit  in  international  attitude.  On  one  side 
Japan  is  a militaristic  autocracy.  Concerning  that  side  of  Japan 
there  is  nothing  too  bad  to  say.  The  military  party  in  Japan  is 
at  present  in  control.  It  can  act  without  accountability  to  parlia- 
ment or  cabinet;  it  can  override  the  decisions  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment or  circumvent  them  by  duplicity;  it  can  send  soldiers  where 
it  will  and  mold  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Empire  beyond  the 
power  of  any  other  party  to  prevent ; and  it  does  all  these  things 
ruthlessly.  And  sometimes  out  of  the  heart  of  that  military  clique 
there  comes  a spokesman  as  brutal  and  unrestrained  as  Bernhardi 
himself.  So  writes  Lieutenant  General  Sato : “In  order  to  place 
our  Empire  on  a firm,  permanent  foundation  of  peace,  an  Empire 
which  has  never  once  submitted  to  the  insult  of  a foreign  nation 
for  three  thousand  years  of  her  history,  we  should  not  permit  the 
Japanese-American  relations  of  today  to  remain  merely  as  a verbal 
quarrel  across  a river.  We  should  by  all  means  appeal  to  arms  and 
be  done  with  it  for  once.” 

If  that  were  the  real  and  only  Japan  what  hope  would  there 
be  for  peace?  But  I come  back  with  another  Japan  as  the  center 
of  my  hope.  This  new  Japan  is  pictured  in  a Buddhist  business 
man  telling  me  with  deep  emotion  of  the  fact  that  of  all  the  boys 
who  wish  a high  school  education  only  one  in  three  can  have  one 
because  there  are  not  schools  enough.  “See,”  he  said,  “the  mil- 
lions we  spend  on  armaments ! A great  cry  goes  out  of  the  heart 
of  Japan,  ‘Have  done  with  these  armies  and  navies  and  give  us 
schools !’  ” This  new  J apan  is  pictured  for  me  in  Mr.  Ozaki,  a 
Christian,  once  Minister  of  Justice  and  member  of  parliament, 
who  has  just  come  back  from  a ten  thousand  mile  trip  speaking 
for  disarmament.  In  his  postal  card  canvass  he  had  thirty  thou- 


DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  EAR  EAST? 


13 


sand  replies  and  of  these  94 v/o  were  in  favor  of  disarmament, 
5%  against  it  and  1%  neutral.  This  new  Japan  is  pictured  for 
me  in  a professor  in  the  Imperial  University  in  Tokyo  who  re- 
cently said  that  if  a canvass  were  taken  of  the  young  men  in  the 
university  90%  of  them  would  vote  to  take  the  Japanese  soldiers 
out  of  Siberia  and  Shantung  and  to  give  autonomy  to  Korea.  In 
the  midst  of  a conversation  with  a group  of  the  Empire’s  leaders, 
one  of  them,  pointing  out  the  window,  said,  “Do  you  see  that  red 
building  there?  That  is  the  Department  of  Justice.  And  that 
square  building  beyond  is  the  headquarters  of  our  General  Staff, 
and  that  is  our  great  enemy.”  And  the  hope  of  this  new  Japan, 
whose  silent  access  of  strength  no  repressive  measures  can  ulti- 
mately check,  lies  here:  Japan  is  an  ancient  warlike  nation 
within  whose  inherited  militarism,  now  grown  old,  the  new  liber- 
alism is  rising  with  fresh  life.  So  President  Ebina,  that  venerable 
leader  of  Christian  Japan,  put  it : “Like  a chick  within  the  shell, 
struggling  to  be  born,  young  liberal  Japan  is  growing  up  inside 
the  strong,  encrusted  traditions  of  her  militaristic  state  and  she 
wants  help  from  without  as  well  as  power  from  within  to  burst 
through.” 

See,  then,  where  the  real  alignment  is!  It  is  not  between 
Japan  as  a whole  and  America  as  a whole.  It  is  between  the  for- 
ward-looking, liberal,  humane-spirited  people  of  America  and 
Japan  together  on  the  one  side  and  the  militaristic  and  reactionary 
cliques  in  both  countries  on  the  other.  When  I talk  with  a hard- 
hearted, visionless,  militaristic  American  I will  not  acknowledge 
him  a member  of  my  spiritual  country.  When  I talk  with  a 
liberal,  forward-looking,  Christian-minded  Japanese,  I know  I 
have  met  a citizen  of  my  fatherland. 

My  friends,  if  America  will,  once  more  now  she  can  be  the 
hope  of  the  world.  I have  talked  about  Western  nations  as  though 
they  have  all  held  one  attitude,  but  there  are  some  things  America 
never  did.  We  have  had  no  part  in  dividing  up  China.  We  have 
no  special  sphere  of  influence  there.  It  may  be  a small  thing,  but 
we  did  give  back  ten  million  dollars  of  the  Boxer  Indemnity  for 
the  sake  of  friendliness.  On  the  whole,  we  have  tried  to  play  fair, 
not  over  much  to  our  credit  because  we  had  so  vast  a country  to 


14  DO  WE  WANT  WAR  IN  THE  FAR  EAST? 


exploit  ourselves  that  we  were  not  much  tempted  to  do  otherwise. 
But  the  fact  of  it  combined  with  our  power  in  the  Pacific  gives 
us  a dominant  influence  and  a dominant  responsibility.  Japanese 
leaders  say  that  under  no  circumstances  will  Japan  fight  the 
United  States  now.  As  one  Japanese  said,  “If  the  United  States 
and  Japan  should  fight  and  Japan  should  lose,  she  would  be  re- 
duced to  a tenth  rate  power.  If  America  should  lose,  she  would 
still  be  a first  rate  power.  We  have  everything  to  lose  and  nothing 
to  gain.”  If  the  United  States  today  will  have  a strong,  fair,  Far 
Eastern  policy,  if  she  will  mean  business  when  she  says,  “Fair 
play,  an  open  door,  disarmament  and  peace,”  she  can  have  her 
way.  And  if  ever  there  was  a time  for  the  Christian  people  of 
America  to  make  their  public  spirit  and  purpose  felt,  it  is  now — 
for  the  sake  of  the  world,  for  the  sake  of  the  nation,  for  the  sake 
of  the  Church,  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 

Prayer 

Eternal  God,  our  Father,  who  hath  set  us  in  the  midst  of 
these  tumultuous  currents  of  our  generation’s  life,  lay  Thy  hand 
upon  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  and  command  us  clearly  concerning 
Thy  purposes  that  we  may  not  err  therein.  In  particular  send 
Thy  guidance  upon  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  all 
those  associated  with  him  in  authority.  Confirm  every  right  pur- 
pose, subdue  every  unworthy  fear  and  hesitancy  and  make  the 
whole  body  of  this  people  to  desire  with  passionate  prayer  the 
coming  of  Thy  day.  Amen. 


